On The Legal Protection Of Labors' Right To Rest In China

The right to rest,a right for rest,with the dural nature of subsistence and development, is an important condition for the laborers to continue to work and enjoy other rights.The understandings of the right in academic circles are consistent in essence:It is a legal right enjoyed by laborers,the subject are laborers;It is for laborers' mental and physical exertion in professional activities,closely integrated with the labor process,but not based on it,It is broader;As a legal right,the basic purpose is to ensure laborers' physical and mental recovery time.The right to rest mainly includes two aspects:the restrictions on working hours and protections of rest time,laborers enjoy it,the employers have the obligations to protect the right.The right to rest generated in the period of capitalism,driven by the labor movement.It is based on many factors:thought,economy,society and others,and finally established along with the legislations of the working hours and rest time, the level of protection increases along with the development of society and economy and the sound legal system.The right to rest includes intrinsic value and instrumental value.Performances of the intrinsic value are as follows:it embodies basic survival needs,it is necessary for individuals to achieve personal freedom, laborers can pursue personal development and realize life purpose.The instrumental value is it can create economic and social benefits,and realize the human pursuit of freedom,social justice,order,equality,equity and others.At this stage,international treaties and national legislations strengthen the protection of laborers'right to rest by the provisions on working hour system and rest and holiday system.we have formed a relatively complete working hour system by the detailed provisions of standard working hours,shorter working hours,consolidated working hours,irregular working hours,longer hours.The rest and holiday provisions of weekly rest days,statutory holidays,annual leave,family visit leave,marriage and funeral leave, maternity leave,are closely together with the limitations on working hours.The two systems complement each other to provide effective protection for the realization of the laborers'right to rest.At this stage,it is serious to work overtime beyond the statutory standard,the realization of labors' right to rest is fairly unbalanced.To work overload injures labors' health seriously and affects social development and stability.There are many rensons:social and economic impact,both self-labor relations,the union,the culture, the country and the government.In addition,there are many problems in the legal protection system of the right to rest: Firstly,laws and regulations are imperfect:we need to perfect the working hour system and the rest and holiday system, the provisions of the right to rest are lack of legal responsibility. Secondly,the supervision is ineffective,labor supervision departments and the unions do not play their due roles.Thirdly,the dispute settlement mechanism is not working.Fourthly,the legal publicity is inadequate.We should perfect the security system of the right to rest as follows:Firstly, perfect the legislation of the working hour system:define the scope of working hours clearly,perfect the standard working hour system,longer hour system,irregular working hour system and consolidated working hours system,regulate the "death from overwork".Secondly,perfect the legislation of the rest and holiday system:laborers give up their vacations voluntarily,how to arrange the annual leave and laborers' arrangements of the annual leave and so on.Thirdly,perfect the legislation of the relief system:the establishment of the relief agency,burden of proof in the dispute settlement, to set up the liability of the right to rest.